GI gets six years in Mapo ‘rape’ case

A three-judge panel on Wednesday sentenced a U.S. soldier to six years in prison for raping a South Korean teenager in September.

Pvt. Kevin Robinson was found guilty of raping the 17-year-old at her residence in Seoul after a night of drinking. He also was convicted of larceny for stealing the victim’s laptop.

Robinson, 21, who was stationed at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul, shook his head as the verdict was read in the Seoul Central District Court. In addition to his prison sentence, personal data about Robinson will be available in South Korea on a media network for 10 years — a significant punishment in a country where privacy is so strictly protected that the names of criminals are often not released to the public, and their faces are blurred out in media images.

The head judge said the court considered the victim’s age, the fact that she was intoxicated, the lack of Robinson having any previous convictions in South Korea and the lack of brutality against the victim, when deciding the sentence. The judge said the length of the sentence was in line with guidelines recommended by a South Korean Supreme Court committee.

Six years is quite the score in a case where even the prosecutors admitted there was no direct evidence. In fact, every time prosecutors opened their mouths to the press, their case looked weaker and weaker. And even in their judgment, the bench said, “While Robinson denies the charges, when one puts together the circumstances, such as the victim’s underwear testing positive for Robinson’s semen, we can only acknowledge the facts of Robinson’s crime.” I’d like to see the other circumstances, because if that’s all the prosecutor brought, this conviction is BS.

Make no mistake—Robinson’s a Class A douche, and I don’t feel good taking this guy’s side. I don’t like this judgement at all, though. I can only hope the press isn’t telling us everything.

GI Korea has a good post on this (from which I stole the Stars & Stripes link). He’s also a lot more understanding of this sentence than I.

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When the words “rape”, “Korean judges”, “prosecutors”, and “sentenced” are in one sentence, it just cannot be good either way. Though, like you, I have a hard time feeling bad for the dude.

Just curious – would Robinson have been convicted of statutory rape if he had a court martial? Or would the case still use the Korean age of consent?

dinkus maximus

Is this the same guy that burned cigarettes on his victim and burned hair with a lighter? Was this the same guy that randomly targeted his victim? If the guy met her in a bar etc. I think 6 years might be harsh. There are so many of these cases it’s hard to keep track of which one is which. I don’t feel like researching douches all morning.

http://rjkoehler.com Robert Koehler

No, not the same guy—that bastard got 10 years, which I feel was merciful in his case.

Yu Bum Suk

If he got six years for merely stealing a computer and statutory rape of a drunken teenager I still don’t feel the least bit sorry for him. I hope GIs all see they won’t get any mercy for such outrageous behaviour. This sends an excellent message to all GIs on the peninsula.

http://rjkoehler.com Robert Koehler

Yeah, except that he didn’t get six years for statutory rape. He was convicted of, to use Whoopi Goldberg’s term, “rape rape.”

http://populargusts.blogspot.com/ bulgasari

While the sentence in this case does seem quite high compared to the Korean who raped the female GI, G.I. Korea makes some interesting points about the theft adding to the sentence in the former case, and the Korean perp in the latter case pleading guilty, begging forgiveness, etc.

And he certainly wouldn’t have been charged with statutory rape – she was 17, not 12. Or to put that another way, Korea’s age of consent is 13. There was at least one lawmaker who threw around the idea of changing it after the case mentioned at that link, but as far as I know nothing came of it.

http://www.rokdrop.com GI Korea

I think that if Robinson would have begged forgiveness and paid the compensation payment he would have probably gotten something similar to the Korean rapist though probably still a little more time due to the theft charge. Robinson chose to fight it though which once you are on trial it is a very rare that there is a not guilty verdict.

Even though the evidence in my opinion was pretty weak he still admitted to having oral sex with a drunk teenager which I am not sure in Korean law whether that could be considered rape as well?

@Bulgasari where do you get your info about Korean laws aside from rokdrop? I would be sure about the laws before you go and have sex with a 14 year old.

Railwaycharm

“This sentence leaves a really bad taste in my mouth:”
Apparently he left a bad taste in her mouth.

slim

“This victim is 18(Korean age)”.. What is her actual age?

Arghaeri

Cloud, its a well known fact, and has been discussed here many times in for example the case against an old korean guy with a 14 year old runaway he gave food and a roof to. The case was built on the law preventing giving money for sex to minors under 18, and was dismissed because the court found he was not paying for sex but was in a consensual relationship and she was over 13years old and gave consent willingly.

hardyandtiny

where did this take place? a motel?

hardyandtiny

this happened in the girl’s apartment? what time did it happen? who does she live with?

깊은 구멍 속에

It happened in her goshiwon where she lived alone in a tiny room near mapo or hongdae I believe.

Q

When the words “rape”, “Korean judges”, “prosecutors”, and “sentenced” are in one sentence, it just cannot be good either way.

Plus the author of the above stupid comment (Q, what a surprise!) apparently doesn’t understand the difference between a state Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States. The court in that article was the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Kat

You people should really think before calling any one a “douche”. You don’t know Pvt Robinson.

You don’t know all the details of what went down in Korea. Yeah, he didn’t beg for forgiveness, but would you grovel when you know you didn’t do something as bad as rape?! Wouldn’t you try to defend yourself if you knew you were being persecuted with No real evidence?

In this country we forget to teach our children that when someone is intoxicated they CANNOT give consent. Yes, Kevin was stupid for stealing a computer. But “stupid” does not mean he is a bad person.

Before you go spiting off your hate filled, uninformed comments try to remember, he is someones son, brother, cousin, husband, father and just because the three paragraphs You read about him made you think poorly doesn’t for one second mean you know the man. Even the people writing these “articles” don’t know the full story and shouldn’t be so quick to judge.